


Out, Damned Spot!

by missmishka



Category: Man of Steel (2013)
Genre: Gen, I do most of my writing during fits of midnight madness so...., am I the only one who sees him as a very Macbeth kind of character?, spoilers for the movie, these two are my new fixation, vague; introspective Zod feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-20
Updated: 2013-06-20
Packaged: 2017-12-15 13:54:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/850318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missmishka/pseuds/missmishka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The new command key will purge Jor-El from the Genesis Chamber, but there is no such thing that can do the same for Zod's memory.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Out, Damned Spot!

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: The usual warnings, I claim no ownership of these characters, they are simply borrowed with love and adoration from the original creators to have their stories, thoughts or circumstances embellished on a little more than the original format had done. Not for any profit.

The rites of Kryptonian mating and pairing with Lara had taken him from Zod’s bed.

A differing of opinion and overly strong wills on both parts had taken him from Zod’s side.

A rash, infuriated and instinctive thrust of blade had taken him from Zod’s life.

The blood of Jor-El felt inked into his skin, but Zod knew it was not visible to any eye.  He just remembered it there.  The thick, heated red flow that had severed all that had been between them in the most brutal of ways.

If only it had been a final end, though.

His voice lingered in Zod’s ears, lectures niggling at the back of his brain like a bug gnawing at the grey matter.  The memory of touch and taste came to him more often than not in the depth of night when sleep eluded.  He closed his eyes only to be assaulted by either the horrific replay of Krypton’s destruction or the ghost of the man that had at turn been his friend, lover and enemy.

He had become a literal ghost in the machine; damned genius that he had been, he had fused his energy into the Genesis Chamber.  He was a virus in the programming of the ship and with his command key Zod would finally purge the last vestiges of the man from existence.

The key slid in all too easily, activating the protocols that brought forth Jor-El’s image; a mere shadow of what had been, but so seemingly real that it was like a sucker punch to his gut.

The words that were said were wrong; Zod had never managed to get those right.  It shouldn’t have mattered; he hadn’t _actually_ been talking to Jor-El.  He’d only been speaking to a figment, as he had more times than he cared to admit in the time since it had all fallen to chaos and ruin.

With one last push of his hand the key locked into place and the new command protocol overwrote Jor-El in the system and the familiar image of the man flickered away before Zod’s eyes.  He clenched his jaw against the urge to reach out into the empty space to see if there were any tangible traces of the man, but he knew that there never had been. 

Smoke and mirrors; clever tricks and designs.  Those had been Jor-El’s forte.  Zod’s had always been strength and brute force; tackling the obvious obstacles and smashing oppositions with whatever weaponry made available to him.

He swallowed back the lingering regrets and turned to focus on his purpose.  With his eyes locked on the landscape that would soon evolve into a habitable planet for the revival of his people, Zod took the helm with grim resolution to see the future brought to present.

The past was done. 

The original Krypton and Jor-El were gone.

_I will honor the man you once were, Zod, not this monster you’ve become._

But damned if that voice, those words, didn’t still echo somewhere inside him.

**Author's Note:**

>  _Is this a dagger which I see before me,_  
>  The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee;  
> I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.  
> Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible  
> To feeling as to sight? or art thou but  
> A dagger of the mind, a false creation,  
> Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?  
> I see thee yet, in form as palpable  
> As this which now I draw.  
>  _ **~Macbeth,** William Shakespeare_
> 
> I delved back into Macbeth thinking Lady Macbeth's famous "Out, damned spot; out I say!" would be most fitting line for this piece, but while I did take that for the title I find Macbeth's words a better fit for Zod. In fact, I ended up rereading the whole play again and just marveling at the similarities between Zod and Macbeth. It really gives new insight into both, imo.


End file.
